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peachyqueenly · 6 months

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Cookie Run, Queerbait, and why the concept does not apply to SeaMoon... 2!!!

//This is a repost of an older post, as something else came up that I wanted to add to this analysis. If you don't want to reread the entire thing, feel free to skip to the section headed with 'Queerbait: Lost in Translation'.//

There are a lot of issues with the way Devsis, the developers behind Cookie Run, handle diversity in their games. Most notably, it falls into the common trap many, MANY gacha games do in that it partakes in a lot of orientalist tropes. But one debate I’ve seen that I just cannot get behind, as a lesbian, is the idea that they have queerbaited-- most namely, with SeaMoon.

Below the cut, I will explain why: what queerbait is and what it looks like, queerbaiting vs coding, and why comparing WlW tropes from other countries to queerbaiting is unfair (and also maybe don’t apply a Japanese literary concept to a Korean game, more on that later). All in a bid to show why it is not only wrong to compare SeaMoon to queerbaiting, it is harmful.

SeaMoon, for those unfamiliar, is the name popularly given to the ship between Sea Fairy Cookie and Moonlight Cookie in Cookie Run. Aside from the ocean and the moon being a common motif for romance in fiction already, the game had hinted at their romance in a lot of in-game and side material. Most namely, Sea Fairy’s line about Moonlight’s heart ‘being the warmest’ and the “I want you Everyday” music video with their moment together + the lines that went along with that moment...

Your love brought spring to my endless winter...

For more examples of where their romance was suggested, I recommend this doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LPJU8yBYD8Ng7lhh_lR0bA2XRwmJTtbRceGuKahFxFs/edit

The point is, most WlW in this fandom caught onto the romantic ramifications of the ship long before Moonlight was expanded on in Kingdom and the recent updates all but confirmed their mutual affection towards one another. The two of them even got matching costumes and a bond story that was as close to romance as Cookie Run would do (as it is ultimately not a romance centered franchise).

With who they are established...

Queerbait: What is it?

Queerbaiting most popularly is understood as a marketing gimmick where creators and multimedia companies suggest queerness to draw in LGBT people and allies, only for the rug to be pulled out from underneath fans. Though it has other meanings, especially in other cultures as I'll explain more below. Whether this is utilizing the ‘bury your gays’ trope, the rep being constrained to insignificant side characters/moments, or just not existing at all.

The two most popular examples of queerbaiting would be recent Disney movies and Voltron. Though special shoutout to Harry Potter, as if we didn’t have enough reasons to hate the book series and JKR. As the stuff with Dumbledore was an obvious retcon to go ‘look how progressive I am!!!’.

Voltron’s last season had two key things regarding queerbait: the Klance drama (the ship between Keith and Lance) and Shiro’s bait and switch with his partner.

To the show’s credit, Shiro was actually gay. Even revealed to have had a partner he was engaged to. However, this rug was pulled out from underneath fans when they actively killed said partner. He was given another partner in the epilogue, but the fact he was revealed to be gay only for his partner to be killed off (coupled with the next thing) upset many queer fans.

Klance is a lot more insidious. In the run up to the final season, Netflix and the crew actively promoted the show using Klance and its popular support. Despite the fact they knew the relationship was never intended to be canon. This is one of the most explicit examples of queerbaiting out there, and is foundational to understanding the specificity and insidiousness of the marketing ploy.

For Disney, I would like to focus on the Star Wars sequels and Beauty and the Beast (2017). The last movie of the sequel trilogy had the creators talking about how there would be queer rep... leading many queer fans to believe they were talking about Finn and Poe for obvious reasons, something the creators never corrected/confirmed. Only for the rep to merely be two background characters in one scene.

As for Beauty and the Beast, Le Fou was celebrated as Disney’s first openly gay character, leading folks to believe they’d explore him having feelings for the titular bad guy. But that was never really explored in any meaningful way, and the rep we got of him was a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ moment between him and an unnamed character. Arguably he could fall more into coding, but the fact Disney actively marketed him for his gayness is where it bleeds into queerbaiting.

In general, queerbaiting is a more modern problem, as companies feel they can say the word gay now. But are still wishy-washy on actual depictions of queerness. So we get them celebrating their inclusion, even if it’s ultimately little to nothing.

Queerbaiting vs Queer Coding

This is when an important distinction needs to be made: what is queerbaiting and what is queer coding. Queer coding is when media uses subtext, but never explicitly says, a character is gay. A good way to understand this is to compare 90′s disney movies to modern ones.

As discussed above, modern Disney will often go on about having queerness in their movies only for it to be minimal at best if not existent. 90′s Disney meanwhile never marketed their movies as having LGBT elements, but many fans could see the way in which queerness came through from characters like Ursula (literally modeled off a drag queen), Scar, and Hades.

Queer coding can be seen as a product of the Hays Code era-- where positive depictions of ‘perverse sexuality’ (including homosexuality) was not allowed in film, relegating a lot of queerness to the roles of villains (hence the association Disney villains have with it). That, or queer creators had to find ways of coding their heroes in ways that went under the nose of cishet audiences.

Queer coding exists in a net-neutral space. As queer coding, while in many ways is outdated in a world where media can show explicit LGBT rep, was integral to the ways in which queer creators told their stories for years. And actively influences the way many queer creators continue to tell their story (for better and for worse). It can also perpetrate stereotypes against queer people, as we saw with the Disney villains, however.

Still, this is different than the relatively modern concept of queerbaiting as that is largely a negative phenomenon. Queer coding was a tool used and is still used by actual LGBT people, while queerbaiting is more often than not the work of cishet folks or corporations wanting to make a quick buck.

Queerbait: Lost in Translation

Another element of queerbait I did not previously address is how its more commonly understood in the context of cultures' media (such as in Eastern countries like Korea and Japan). As the financial reasoning behind the idea isn't as front and center (for a myriad of complicated reasons regarding how explicit queer rep can be from country to country). Though this definition of queerbait can also apply to US and English based media.

To some, queerbait also applies to coded LGBT relationships that are primarily centered on or meant to appeal to straight audiences (WlW rep meant for the male gaze, MlM rep meant for girls).

In other words, fetishized LGBT coding.

I would personally argue (as a queer non binary lesbian) that this meaning is less insidious than the money making logic behind modern queer baiting that happens in the US mainly, but its for an important reason...

A lot of this queerbait relies on elements of coding still. While the way many Western viewers see queerbait in American media relies on using explicit queerness as a marketing ploy. To compare, let's look at idol/sports anime and the previously mentioned Disney movies.

The idea that idol/sports anime is queerbait is... contentious. And one I'm not entirely sure I even agree on. But it is undeniable that some of its more WlW centric scenes appeal to the male audiences that view these shows or games. Still, nothing is ever made explicit. It utilizes elements of queer coding originating from the yuri/gl genre that was built up by queer people themselves.

To some, this may be more insulting. For me personally though coding has always been a net neutral, and this form of coding is just more on the negative end for me. Still, there is something there for queer people to take away.

Meanwhile, the way in which disney queerbaits its audience is by saying their character is LGBT then... doing nothing with it. Not even elements of coding. Just-- 'yep there's a gay character in our movie come watch it'!!! Its a lot more soulless compared to the previous one, and therefore to me is more insulting.

Why SeaMoon falls more into Coding

With the two elements defined, let’s explain why SeaMoon falls more into the realm of coding rather than baiting.

First off, the way the devs write romance is consistent with how they wrote SeaMoon. Most of the ways in which things were left vague before Kingdom could be explained in the devs unfortunate habit of not elaborating on things they really should elaborate on. On top of romance in general being coded rather than explicit in the franchise.

As an example, lets discuss the two closest things to M/F romance we have in the franchise-- PureLily (Pure Vanilla and White Lily) and MintCocoa (Mint Choco and Cocoa).

PureLily became more explicit in the same update as SeaMoon (with Pure Vanilla wondering aloud if he still loves her), but in general the way their relationship was shown before the Crunchy Dreams event was largely through subtext (how the two spoke of one another, PV’s garden, etc) and outside material (the love quiz).

This also applies to MintCocoa. During the days of OB, the game itself did not elaborate much on either of the two’s characters (just as they didn’t with Moonlight). With most of their romantic subtext (like SeaMoon) being in outside videos, media, and merch. Kingdom in general seems more willing to elaborate on romance, as we saw in the story that came with Cocoa’s release.

And secondly, the devs never really threw SeaMoon around as a way of saying ‘look how progressive we are’ or to appeal specifically to LGBT fans. Anytime SeaMoon was included in media, it was often alongside other coded relationships such as MintCocoa or things like RaspRose (Raspberry Mousse x Rose). And even the times they did do things like promote themselves during pride month, they never used SeaMoon. Instead they used the Hollyberry kingdom (due to its bg having same-gender couples dancing and having drinks together).

The way SeaMoon was treated up until the recent Kingdom update was more in line with queer coding rather than queer baiting. Which is NOT perfect, as media should go beyond coding in the modern age. But it is not as bad or as insidious as queerbaiting implies.

Not as insidious as either definition of queerbait; as nothing about the relationship between them is really centered on being for the male or fetishized gaze either. They're Cookies... in a series where romance is not a focus. While one could argue their romance is stuck more into the background compared to say MintCocoa and PureLily, it still isn't designed to be fetishized (in canon, what fandoms do with SeaMoon and other LGBT ships is its own matter).

Extra Note on S Class Comparisons

S Class is a trope in Japanese media where two girls will often have a very close bond, akin to romance. However, it is ultimately still platonic and disappears upon either graduation from school or marriage. It is over 100 years old, with some of the first pieces of the genre being in the early 1900′s. And was a major influence on the yuri, more commonly called GL now, genre.

Before anything else, I want to offer a brief aside that maybe we should be careful when comparing a Japanese literary trope to a Korean game. Comparing the two countries can be a very... very touchy subject matter. Especially in the context of this being a genre that rose in popularity during the colonization of Korea by Japan.

I do NOT think you can compare SeaMoon or anything in CR to S Class tropes. But I will discuss it just to clear things up, as I find comparing the trope to queerbaiting problematic.

It is more akin to queer coding rather than queer baiting. Why? Many of the authors who utilized the trope were queer themselves. In fact, “Obuko Yoshiya, a lesbian Japanese novelist active in the Bluestocking feminist movement, is regarded as a pioneer of Class S literature”. Again, a key factor that separates coding and baiting (being that queer creators will often code but won’t bait).

The genre is at its worst stifling and harmful to the modern day GL genre in Japanese literature, and extremely heteronormative. But to compare it to things like queerbaiting or to entirely dismiss it as a form of WlW rep in the context of how it was used by actual queer people in Japan is entirely unfair to the genre; queer rep does not look the same in every country.

S Class also evades the way in which queerbait can mean being meant for the male gaze, as it is a trope whose origins lie earnestly in media meant for girls. That does not mean it can't be used to appeal to the male gaze, but it is not where it started.

Ending Notes

Are the devs perfect in their representation of SeaMoon and WlW? Of course not, there is a valid conversation to be had on how queer relationships constantly being merely coded rather than explicit is annoying and hurtful. And more and more queer people have this critique of the concept of queer coding. On a personal level, I can forgive it in this specific case cause its in line with how the devs do romance in general. But if it bothers you that it was merely coded for the longest time rather than explicit, that’s entirely valid.

But the idea the devs ever queerbaited audiences is unfair and actively makes many WlW feel invalidated in how they easily saw the coding present in the two’s relationship. Again, queer coding is a net neutral phenomenon while queerbaiting is mostly negative. To subscribe such a notion to what is important rep to so many WlW is hurtful.

Sources

https://www.animefeminist.com/escape-yuri-hell-flip-flappers-critique-class-s-genre/

https://bookriot.com/what-is-queerbaiting-vs-queer-coding/

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LPJU8yBYD8Ng7lhh_lR0bA2XRwmJTtbRceGuKahFxFs/edit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_S_(genre)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queerbaiting#:~:text=Queerbaiting%20is%20a%20marketing%20technique,romance%20or%20other%20LGBTQ%2B%20representation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queer_coding#:~:text=Queer%20coding%20is%20the%20subtextual,character%20in%20media%20as%20queer.

#cookie run #cookie run kingdom #crk #sea fairy cookie #moonlight cookie #seamoon #media analysis #lgbt writing #lgbt #queer coding #queerbaiting #crob #cookie run ovenbreak

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blueskittlesart · 2 years

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tell me more about voltron please

i considered putting this behind a readmore but i dont think i will actually. i think im going to subject you all to this. okay to begin with when i say voltron i am not talking about the 1984 anime voltron. i am talking about the american 2016 reboot of that anime, voltron legendary defender. it had eight seasons within 2 years and i was obsessed with it for the majority of my time in middle school. it did irreparable damage to my brain.

voltron was run by two people named lauren montgomery and joaquim dos santos. voltron voice actors and writers also had a kind of unprecedented amount of interaction with their fans, both in-person and online. the majority of those fans were adolescent lgbt people, as are fans of most netlfix cartoons. this did not end well. i'll get into it later.

the first two seasons of voltron came out to relative praise. it appeared, at the time, to be an interesting character-driven children's show, similarly to steven universe and other cartoons of its time. As I mentioned, a lot of fans were adolescent and/or young adult lgbt people. this obviously led to fandom, and, as a consequence, shipping culture. the problem was that the shipping culture in voltron was insane. there were two MAIN ships that people were into at the time. keith/lance (klance) and keith/shiro (sheith). for context, keith and lance were 17 & 18-year old classmates and established rivals who had several heart-to-heart/romantically-coded scenes in the first two seasons, causing fans to latch on HARD. shiro was keith's 26-year-old adopted brother.

the mid-stage voltron fandom literally coined the terms "anti" and "proship." "anti" originally meant "anti-sheith" that is the kind of fandom culture were talking about here. before voltron, these debates had obviously still been present in fandom, but voltron dialed everything up several notches. it was insane. I was put on blocklists for being anti-sheith, as a FOURTEEN YEAR OLD.

I mentioned earlier that the showrunners and voice actors had a kind of unprecedented amount of interaction with their fans, and i actually think this is what lead to the show's downfall. What happened was, basically, at the very beginning of the show's run, one of the showrunners teased that they would have lgbt rep in their show. everyone assumed that this rep would be either klance or sheith, and went insane about it. the staff of the show could not have a single event without some fan asking if shieth or klance was going to be canon. they would always dance around it, which i don't REALLY blame them for. the biggest problem was that they actively REFUSED to condemn sheith, an incestuous ship between a 26 year old and a 17 year old. some fans at the time suggested that they even encouraged the shipping culture within the fandom because they knew it brought them more engagement. however, encouraging this kind of thing and refusing to condemn sheith led to several unsavory situations with voice actors and fans, most notably pidge's voice actor bullying a 13-year-old off this site after they pointed out it was weird that the voice actor openly shipped sheith. there were also several incidents where FANS were in the wrong, most notably when a klance shipper took photos of unaired material during a tour of the studio where voltron was being made and then threatened to leak it if the showrunners didn't make klance canon. it was an insane couple of years to be in fandom spaces on the internet.

this is bad, obviously. all of this is really bad. but it also all came alongside the steady, obvious decline in quality of the show itself. what had once seemed like an interesting, well-paced, character-driven narrative was clearly devolving into a badly-paced serialized mess. subtle racism began to creep into the writing. the racism became less subtle as the show went on, obviously favoring white characters. Characters would have development teased and then never followed through on. filler episodes would be full of weirdly malicious digs at fan-favorite characters for seemingly no reason. the story became disjointed, the tone shifted to be much darker with little warning, and the plot became nearly impossible to follow. what came out later on, after the show had concluded, was that sometime after season 3 or so, the showrunners had THROWN OUT THE SHOW'S BIBLE. meaning past a certain point, there was ZERO PLANNING, zero written plot, zero ANYTHING. it was obvious in hindsight why the show started to go downhill so quickly. It was speculated that the bible was thrown out specifically to spite klance shippers, who the showrunners later openly admitted to hating and wanting to screw over.

six seasons came and went with no lgbt rep like they'd promised. the fans were getting incredibly impatient. the longer they went without the satisfaction of a klance or sheith payoff, the harder it became for them to overlook the writing problems in the show. something had to be done.

at sdcc 2018, the voltron team showed a clip of their new season.

this was an EVENT in the fandom. like. i remember exactly where i was at the time. i remember refreshing the blog of a mutual i had who was at the panel, liveblogging it, and praying that they would finally fix everything they'd fucked up over the last year. they showed a clip of shiro and another man, who was named adam. the clip itself was ambiguous, but when asked about it afterward the showrunners confirmed that adam was shiro's fiancee.

this literally sent voltron fans into a rabid state. we were going fucking INSANE for those 2 weeks between the panel and the season's release. as far as we knew, at the time, we had been given the lgbt rep we'd been promised, and they'd somehow managed to do it WITHOUT PISSING OFF EITHER SIDE OF THE SHIP WAR. it was a miracle.

two weeks later, the season aired. adam was in about 2 minutes of the episodes, total. EPISODES, PLURAL. there were 13 in the season. his presence on screen amounted to the ambiguous scene which was played at the con, where it's unclear what his relationship with shiro actually was, and a scene of him DYING IN A FIGHTER CRASH.

the fandom fucking imploded at this point, and i left it basically immediately afterwards because the lgbt rep was basically the only thing i'd been holding out for. i can't tell you exactly what happened after that but the rotten tomatoes score for voltron went from like 79% to 10% overnight, if that gives you any idea. voltron legendary defender is also currently cited as an example on the wikipedia page for queerbaiting. they lost about 90% of their fanbase that day, and the rest was lost a few months later when they killed their only black character and redeemed their genocidal villains in the final season.

voltron sucked ass and i have no idea what possessed me to sit through ONE season of it, let alone seven, when it was just so obviously never going to be what i wanted it to be. that being said, the fandom was a literal cultural reset for every lgbt person between the ages of 14 and 25 at the time. make of that what you will but for the love of god do not watch it for yourself. stay as far away from this fucking show as humanly possible

#asks #god its been a while since ive explained voltron to someone. i could do a video essay on this shitshow fr

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silentwillowwhisperer · 5 months

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My brain is forever ruined

I see red and blue ➡️ I think of Klance

I recently saw the flag of the principality of Liechtenstein 🇱🇮 and my brain went 'Thats so klance, it even has crown because klance is canon king, also blue is the top and red the bottom finally ending that debate'

Something like this ever happen to you or am I just insane?

Yeah, that's a thing that happens. I find myself trying to place red and blue things next to each other and going for red and blue color combinations allllllll the time. I don't remember what context it was in, but I think I was doing a very serious thing with a bunch of very serious, task oriented people, and one went 'the red and blue here are very important' and I was trying SO hard not to lose my straight face.

And you know what? That flag IS so Klance.

#asks <3 #thanks for the ask!#tawny post

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erithel · 1 year

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This is no way meant to be a hate ask and look i want to like the idea of canon klance and i want to like canon Keith but lbr if the writers had made klance or any keith ship canon they would have done it in worst way possible with the ship being only meant to benefit Keith while simultaneously being detrimental to the love interest. Cause fact is that Keith was writers pet, the top priority, the self insert, they destroyed all the characterization and agency and roles of other characters for the plot and story and then destroyed said plot and story to make Keith super cool hero character.

I keep seeing posts like how canon wouldnt suck if (insert Keith ship) had been canon and i am like, canon sucked because they priortized a lbr white coded able bodied character over canonical characters of colour who were reduced to torture porn, hate sinks, and comic relief. Canon sucked because the characters who were established as important parts of the story were reduced to side characters and plot devices so that Keith could shine brighter. And a canon Keith ship would not have helped any character other than Keith, and if anything would have reduced the other character as an eye candy comforter.

Again this is not meant to be a hate ask. It is just been frustrating to be in this fandom especially as a darker skinned woc to watch this show and fandom still treat characters of colour as woke points while using them to prop up Keith

I have debated over responding to this message, mainly because there are some things in here that could potentially cause drama on my page if I even respond to them in any way.

However, there are some points in here worth addressing, so...

First and foremost, I am going to say that I can see your intention is not to make this a hate ask. However, it does come across that way to some degree. The main reason being that you are making valid points about the other characters, but you are doing it by pushing Keith's character down - and that is the stuff I don't really like to see, here.

I'm not trying to invalidate your view on things, because I realize your point was literally this, just the other way around. I'm just saying for the sake of my own page, I've had a lot of asks in a similar vein and it's not really something I'm interested in discussing in asks.

Of course everyone can like and dislike whichever characters they choose, but I do like to keep things as fair and equal as possible across the board. So, I am always open to discussions and opinions on why a character or another deserved more and better, but only if they do not come at the expense of another character.

And with this, specifically - I just don't see this version of Keith you are referring to, so there's not even much I can add to that part of your ask.

To the other parts, however, this very much illustrates the need to having diversity in the creation process of shows and movies.

Unfortunately, a lot of studios and execs and whoever greenlights these things still rely on the "token" aspect when it comes to diversity.

As your ask proves, it doesn't do any good just to simply have characters of color, for example, if they are reduced to stereotypes or insignificant parts.

This is where the actual diversity should come in - because it needs to happen behind the scenes for there to be a change that will actually mean something.

In my opinion, experience is so much more important than any title or rank or connection. It is important to actually include and receive input from creators who understand a situation on its basest level.

I consider myself to be a very empathetic person who tries my best to understand human nature and emotions. But I, as a white person, will never have the same experience as you, a person of color. It's literally and physically impossible.

But that's the whole point.

Because if a book were to be written about the actual experiences of growing up as a poc, there are insights and stories you, anon, could offer than I could only take a wild guess at. And vice versa.

I'm not saying that creators should only create based on their own personal life and experiences. But it is important for larger projects such as shows that want to include a diverse cast to actually employ people who understand what it is like.

Because it's not enough to just throw a darker skinned character in a show and say "Hey look at us we did it. Diversity! Woohoo!"

And it is just bad storytelling all around if any character in any given situation is only there for the purpose of the "main character" (or any other character).

Because what really makes a story interesting is the diversity that can come from the different experiences and opinions of the various characters - how they can clash and converge and change and grow.

The final thing I will add is that in my mind, Keith is Asian and Galran, so...mixed. I understand a lot of trouble could have been avoided if the showrunners had just confirmed this was the case while the show was airing, but, well...we can't change the past.

It was, in the most technical sense, confirmed here, but I do understand that most people will view that as too little too late, and that's understandable.

youtube

#asks #vld #erithel's hot takes

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the-kittens-of-vol-tron · 2 years

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hi this is my third time trying to get back into VLD and honestly i think this time my juICES ARE FL O WING

soooo, my ao3 is nightingale231

and i was wondering if you could write any kind of,,, langst with smitten pining lance and specifically thinking keith deserves better?

[or mom friend lance tbh]

Your wish is my command (also I'll gift this to you on A03 :3)

I really debated between making this established klance and in the talking stage so I did a mix of both

-----

Lance felt like he was on cloud nine, his lips pressed against his formal rival. It was over as quick as it happened, Keith pulling away, his face matching the color on his armor.

"Don't you ever do that again." Keith looked him up and down, seeming to check him for any injuries.

"I will if it means you'll kiss me."

Keith rolled his eyes, "I can't kiss you if you're dead because you tried to sacrifice yourself for me."

"I tried to sacrifice myself for Voltron actually. Little self-centered there Keith," Lance poked his forehead.

Keith grabbed his wrist, "I like you too much to have you die on me."

Lance felt his face burn. The kiss should have been enough reason for him to realize Keith liked him back but hearing him say it made his knees weak.

Keith kissed him again, ignoring the rest of the team finally making their way into the Blue lion hanger. Lance kissed him back eagerly, trying to ignore the voice in the back of his head telling him he wasn't worth it.

---

He and Keith didn't immediately start dating, but they became joined at the hip. Their arguments died down into nothing, just slight bickering once in a while. You couldn't have one without the other. Everyone's bonds for Voltron became stronger. The team was running better than ever.

"You awake?" Keith whispered in the dark of the room.

Lance moved slightly, being mindful of the boy next to him, "yeah."

"Can't sleep?"

"You're the one to talk."

Keith chuckled in the dark, "I'm just lost in thought."

"What about?"

"How much I like this guy I know."

Lance smiled, more to himself than to the other boy. No matter how many times Keith implied his feelings towards him, he still found himself flustered. "What would you tell this mystery guy."

"That I like him a lot, and he makes me happy and I like being around him."

Lance felt the other boy's lips pressed against his cheek.

"And I was wondering if he would be interested in being my boyfriend."

Lance thought his heart was going to beat out of his chest; he wondered if Keith could hear it. His chest swam with a mix of emotions, tightening a bit as the feeling. He liked Keith, he liked him more than he could put into words. But he was just Lance. He was a nobody compared to Keith.

If they didn't end up in space together Keith wouldn't have known who he was, let alone have feelings for him. He knew he wasn't the best person for Keith.

"Did you fall asleep?" Keith's voice had a hint of disappointment to it.

"No, sorry just thinking."

"About what I asked?"

"Yeah...um." He couldn't faintly see Keith's outline in the dark.

"You don't have to say yes." Keith began to lean back to lie down.

"I didn't say no."

"So...?"

"Yes, I would love to be your boyfriend."

Keith propped himself back up, quickly finding Lance's lips. Lips kissed him back, trying to will his brain to shut up.

---

They had been dating for almost two months, and Lance was absolutely smitten with Keith in every way possible. Dating Keith was better than he could have ever imagined. Keith was soft when it was just the two of them. He was completely different than when they were with the team. He let his guard down, relaxed more, he whispered sweet things in his ears. Lance couldn't believe that Keith wanted to be with him. That Keith chose him.

The unfortunate part about being with Keith, someone who Shiro (y'know the best pilot in the Garrison) mentored, someone who was at the top of his class at the Garrison, someone who was good at everything he did; Lance couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't worthy of him.

Lance knew he had a place in Voltron but lately, he had been questioning his status as the right leg of Voltron. He just didn't feel like he contributing to the team in a valuable way. In a way that no one else could.

And sometimes, even when Lance just wanted to simply spend time with his boyfriend, his brain picked apart every reason why he wasn't enough for Keith. Why Keith should find someone better.

He kept his thoughts to himself, making sure he didn't worry his boyfriend or the team. He could push through these thoughts.

"Lance? You spaced out there."

He blinked at the voice, pulling himself out of the dissociative state he found himself in. "We are in space so."

"Ha good one Lance!" Hunk replied.

Shiro gave him a slight frown, "you okay?"

Lance nodded, "yeah sorry. Just lost in thought."

"Okay. We were just discussing the mission."

Lance looked up at the hologram, "looks good to me."

"Okay. Then this is the idea we're going with. Get some rest everyone." Shiro dismissed the team and everyone dispersed.

"You want to watch a movie?" Keith stood in front of his boyfriend, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Yeah...yeah a movie sounds good. You pick though." He stood from his chair, letting his boyfriend take his hand and drag him towards his bedroom.

"You're not even paying attention." Keith poked his cheek.

"I am, I swear."

"Who's Gazel?"

"....She's the main character?"

"No one in this movie is named Gazel. Something is on your mind. You can tell me."

Lance stared at his boyfriend, for a brief movement he thought about spilling his guts to him. Telling him all his insecurities. He opened his mouth, "I love you."

Keith's face fell into a surprised expression before he smiled, "I love you too."

---

Sleep began to escape from Lance. No matter how much he tried he found himself tossing and turning throughout the night. His anxiety would rip any peace he managed to hold in his grasp.

Which is how he found himself sitting on the observatory desk, a blanket wrapped around him. He watched the stars dance around in his vision, his eyes burning no matter how many times he blinked. All he wanted to do was sleep.

"Babe? What are you doing in here?"

He closed his eyes, he knew Keith would eventually stumble upon him. "Hey." He didn't even have the energy to turn and face him.

Keith softly walked over to him, sitting down next to him. "You weren't in bed."

"Couldn't sleep."

"You couldn't sleep the past couple of nights...or last couple of weeks."

Lance took a deep breath, "yeah."

"What's been on your mind?"

"Oh, stupid things. Nothing you need to worry about mullet."

"Lance...we've talked about you lying to me."

"It's not a lie."

"I don't think it's stupid."

"You don't even know what it is."

"True, but anything that bothers you is not stupid."

Lance pulled his knees closer to his chest, he knew this was a dumb argument to have with his boyfriend. "I just...I think... never mind let's just go back to bed."

"No, what were you going to say?" Keith leaned into his side slightly. "I won't be mad at whatever you have to say."

"Okay...I think you deserve better."

"What do you mean?" Keith's voice was hesitant as if he was thinking of the worst-case scenario of Lance's words.

"I think you deserve better. I don't think I'm good for you...or that I live up to what you need."

"What do you think I need?"

"Someone who can hold a candle to you. You're like...one of the best pilots in the word, you are a great swordsman, everything you do is just...good. And then I'm beside you just not contributing."

"You don't think you contribute?"

"Not really. You could have anyone in the world and you chose me? Something doesn't add up."

"I chose you because I love you."

"But if we didn't end up here," Lance gestured to the Castle, "you wouldn't know me. You wouldn't love me. I wouldn't exist to you."

Keith didn't respond for a couple of moments, his eyes scanning the stars. "You're right. I wouldn't know you. Or Hunk or Pidge. I would still be living in the shack, going crazy over the Blue lion. And I probably wouldn't be in a relationship either."

Lance didn't respond, he didn't know what to say. Keith wasn't wrong.

"I chose you Lance because I like you. You make me happy, you are someone I feel drawn to. And you're the team sharpshooter; you can come up with plans on the fly and hold the team together even if you don't realize it. Without you, we wouldn't be Voltron."

"I guess."

"Babe, look at me."

Lance turned his body to meet his boyfriend's eyes. Keith reached up and gently touched his cheek. "I love you. I love you more than I can put into words. You are everything I want and more. You amaze me every day and you will continue to amaze me. This anxiety is just anxiety. Not the truth."

"I'm worried you're going to find someone else." He closed his eyes, "someone better than me."

"Lance the only person I'm looking for is a witness for when we get married."

"I think that's for future Keith and Lance."

"And I'm excited for them to get to that point."

Lance leaned forward and connected their lips softly, this time he shushed his anxiety.

-----

I hope you liked it :3

Thank you <33333

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thebroccolination · 1 year

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Hey Key, do you have a favourite ship of all time or is it really hard to chose from certain couples? As I see you post about a lot of wonderful couples :)

Hi lovely Anon! :)

I got this yesterday morning and I’ve been thinking about it ever since because of course my brain went directly to WinTeam.

I mean, they’re definitely the ship I’ve written most about. 38% of the fics on my current AO3 account are about WinTeam. :’)

Buuuut there were a lot of, like, formative ships that I didn’t write much or anything about. And they’re ships I always go back to whenever I’m between fandoms or just in the mood for something familiar and loved.

Like RayK/Fraser from due South! They were a massive part of my teen years in fandom. If you haven’t seen it, please give it a watch! It’s all remastered and up for free on YouTube! They still mean the world to me, and some of my favorite fics of all time are about them.

And then there’s merthur, whose meteoric and enduring impact on fandom should be studied by science. I read Awake by Cori Lannam and cry at least once a year.

There’s klance, who are loud and annoy each other and were never going to be canon and VLD was always going to be a catastrophe (who doesn’t keep a story bible to keep track of their own show), but the components for an incredible dynamic were there and fans did what fans do best and made gorgeous, heart wrenching fanworks that surpassed anything in canon for me.

I also love Stony, but I want to clarify that, like, most of my love doesn’t come from the extremely bro-y Marvel movies. I was intrigued by Chris Evans and RDJ’s portrayal of Steve and Tony back when I first saw Avengers, so I came home, opened Tumblr, and looked for the movie fandom that surely already existed. What I found more of, unsurprisingly, was comic fandom, and the more I found out about Steve and Tony in the comics, the more I was underwhelmed by the movies. So basically, the main reason I’m not into Stucky is because Stony fans presented this canon head explosion from the comics first:

There’s also drarry and wolfstar, and I love them the same way I love klance: the source material is disappointing, but the components for greatness were there, and fandom elevated them.

Okay so! Those were all fanon ships, and I always knew none of them were ever going to become canon (though Merlin’s, uh, debatable, maybe discussable—“the man he loves is dying so he’s holding him” REALLY), so I kind of think of them in a separate but equal category to the canon ships.

WHICH ARE:

Viktuuri is one of those ships that just feels like shelter for me. Just, Yuri on Ice was made with such devotion. Not just love, but passion. There’s no antagonist, just Yuuri’s own anxiety and Viktor painstakingly learning to understand and speak a mutual language so he can coax art and beauty and sincerity from Yuuri’s exhausted and heartbroken soul. I’ll always love them extra special.

These two trainwrecks.

KongArt! The whole arc of Kongphob and Arthit’s relationship in SOTUS is just so satisfying and beautiful to me, I just rewatched it with friends in January and I’m already rewatching it again with a different friend now. :’)

WENZHOU. I’m also rewatching Word of Honor and just having a marvelous time re-experiencing just how unhinged they are for each other. “YOUR SON WAS KIDNAPPED WHILE YOU WERE ROLLING AROUND IN THE DAISIES” “ah” “thanks for killing the moment”

And honestly there are more ships I love, but that wasn’t your question!

Of all time.

Hmm.

I think it really is them.

They’re everything I love in a ship: push and pull, vulnerability, sass, unhinged desperation for each other, and two characters I love equally.

WinTeam just has me by the soul, man.

#kiranokira answers #winteam

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ivyial · 8 months

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hii, how are you? I stumbled upon your page and I started to check it out, upon doing that I came across one of your eagleone posts, and how you view the ship or how you view people who dislike the shop entirely for no reason at all. and to be honest I couldn't agree more. your choice of words and how you describe just makes my heart feel hope again. hope that there's actual human beings that are using a gift called a brain for once.

it honestly drives me crazy to see people literally sending death threats and literal racism to those who ship a ship that isn't quite popular. another account just a few days ago that speaks alot about eagleone and analyses their scenes and dialogues, got literal death threats that would me a grown adult puke from how disgusting to know such human beings exist.

( didn't realize to be that long LMAO )

anyway I just wanted to say that I absolutely love all your eagleone content literally makes my day <3

i- 🥺🥺❤❤ omg thank you so much anon

i've never been one for ship wars. what bothers me the most about the eagleone discourse (and the current cleon discourse on twitter as well) is how likening characters to siblings (eagleone) or saying one views the other as a kid (cleon - insane take but anyway) eventually becomes "these characters are LITERALLY siblings, they are so sibling coded to me that it essentially makes them actual siblings" and creates a breeding ground for harassment and accusations of proshipping.

shipping has always been a matter of personal taste, and it's one of those few things in fandoms where there's no need to debate about conflicting ships. in the end, you can just agree to disagree. i like X for those reasons and you like Y for those. that's it. ships are usually better enjoyed with fellow shippers. it only risks becoming an echochamber when people start to take it so seriously that their group of shippers decides to hate on everyone else, and eventually, to harass them.

which is unfortunately what is happening right now. i'm very aware of the death threats and everything else, and it's sad and infuriating to realise that fandoms will never change. idk how old you are anon, or if you were around on tumblr when it happened, but a few years ago, the voltron fandom was a big thing around here (i apologise in advance to everyone who had to live through that lmfao). klance was arguably the biggest ship in the fandom (keith x lance), so the shippers were actively campaigning for it to become canon. it got to the point where klance shippers sent the show creators cupcakes filled with glass shards to convince them to canonise the ship. I WISH I WAS FUCKING KIDDING

this stuff's not new, bullying fellow fans isn't new unfortunately, and bullying actors or producers isn't either. if i remember correctly, when supernatural s4-5 (i guess) were airing back in the 2000s, dean's love interest jo was removed from the show supposedly because fangirls lost their shit and sent hate mail to producers. but that's all speculation, i can't find a reliable source for that.

i wish people would stop taking everything so seriously and get this nasty over fiction. however, it's unlikely that it will happen, because fandoms are filled with kids who don't know any better, are sometimes fully raised by the internet and then turn into immature adults. it's rare to find spaces in fandoms were you can genuinely have fun and create content without being policed by 12 year olds, but when you can, it makes the fandom experience a lot better.

i don't put much content out there, but i'm glad to see that the few posts i write are appreciated!! i'm working on an eagleone fic rn so it definitely makes me want to keep working on it regularly and create more content 😭

#resident evil #fandom #eagleone #leon kennedy #ashley graham

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swagging-back-to · 1 year

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besties just hear me out.. hear me out for a second.

Voltron x attack titan cross over aus. Mainly the voltron cast thrown into the plot of attack titan.

Just hear me out! this is mostly just me figuring out the au so it's rambly as all hell. there's TWO versions of this i want to explore. both are klance btw because DUH.

It wouldnt be a 1:1 crossover because obv. and It'd be lance centric obv cause he's my boy. So Lance --> eren.

Hunk fits armin's role almost perfectly. hunk is a relatively curious type of guy, takes punches with grace and doesnt hit back out of kindness--not out of weakness.

Pidge is hanji reimagined, basically. Although she's technically younger than lance and hunk, this au would make her slightly older than them. I'd lessen the age gap between senior officers and new recruits by a couple years so the difference isnt so intense. Coran would also occupy some aspects of hanji's character, but very loosely. He's like a bridge between hanji and erwin--silly but also holds more authority than the paladins.

Erwin could be occupied by allura. I dont think this one requires much elaboration.

Shiro would be Levi's character (even tho im canon ereri, im willing to change my preferred dynamics for the au.) this is mainly because Shiro is always tired, and responsible for a bunch of kids, and i know having to beat the shit out of any of his kids would tear him apart (referencing the court scene.)

so who would occupy misas actual role??? keith, of course. "BUT WAIT, MISA AND EREN DONT GET TOGETHER IN CANON?" i hear you saying, but luckily this isnt a 1:1 au. Misa and eren butt heads (LITERALLY) multiple times, misa is a badass killing machine, misa is an orphan, misa admires eren and eren is envious of misa. It literally just works for this au.

Moblit's character can be filled by coran and hunk collectively and at the same time that the two are occupying other character roles.

The galrans would probably be molded to fit into the marleyans, but i dont really care who becomes who. I feel like Lotor being Zeke just kinda makes sense, though. Zethrid would be reiner, ezor would fill berthold's shoes simply because of how close she is with zethrid. Axca is DEFINITELY 100% annie. that leaves narti as pieck. IDK about the war hammer and jaw titans, though. Not even a single clue. Maybe Haggar could have the war hammer, seeing as she never actually joins the fight if she has any chance of losing (like a coward) and always fights from far off the battlefield. genuinely no clue for ymir though.

Alternate idea; Pidge could also fit armin's role, simply because of both their intelligences. I debated having pidge fill misa's role because her familys death would drive her to become a badass fighting machine, but i feel like she doesnt fit the role as perfectly as i'd like...

So, although pidge technically embodies some aspects of misa's character, and hunk represents armin's character, i think the living situations could be reversed. On one hand it would be funny if lance and pidge squabbled like misa and eren do in canon, but i genuinely cant see pidge fretting over lance like a mother hen. That's why i think hunk should be the one taken in by the ''jaegers'' instead of pidge. Pidge's father and maybe matt would occupy the role that armin's grandfather had.

#wips

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peachyqueenly · 1 year

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Cookie Run, Queerbait, and why the concept does not apply to SeaMoon

Your love brought spring to my endless winter...

For more examples of where their romance was suggested, I recommend this doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LPJU8yBYD8Ng7lhh_lR0bA2XRwmJTtbRceGuKahFxFs/edit

With who they are established...

Queerbait: What is it?

Queerbaiting most popularly is understood as a marketing gimmick where creators and multimedia companies suggest queerness to draw in LGBT people and allies, only for the rug to be pulled out from underneath fans. Whether this is utilizing the ‘bury your gays’ trope, the rep being constrained to insignificant side characters/moments, or just not existing at all.

Voltron’s last season had two key things regarding queerbait: the Klance drama (the ship between Keith and Lance) and Shiro’s bait and switch with his partner.

Queerbaiting vs Queer Coding

Why SeaMoon falls more into Coding

With the two elements defined, let’s explain why SeaMoon falls more into the realm of coding rather than baiting.

As an example, lets discuss the two closest things to M/F romance we have in the franchise-- PureLily (Pure Vanilla and White Lily) and MintCocoa (Mint Choco and Cocoa).

Extra Note on S Class Comparisons

I do NOT think you can compare SeaMoon or anything in CR to S Class tropes. But I will discuss it just to clear things up, as I find comparing the trope to queerbaiting problematic.

Ending Notes

But the idea the devs ever queerbaited audiences is unfair and actively makes many WlW feel invalidated in how they easily saw the coding present in the two’s relationship. Again, queer coding is a net neutral phenomenon while queerbaiting is negative. To subscribe such a notion to what is important rep to so many WlW is hurtful.

Sources

https://www.animefeminist.com/escape-yuri-hell-flip-flappers-critique-class-s-genre/

https://bookriot.com/what-is-queerbaiting-vs-queer-coding/

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LPJU8yBYD8Ng7lhh_lR0bA2XRwmJTtbRceGuKahFxFs/edit

https://twitter.com/CRKingdomEN/status/1532119839178952704?s=20

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_S_(genre)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queerbaiting#:~:text=Queerbaiting%20is%20a%20marketing%20technique,romance%20or%20other%20LGBTQ%2B%20representation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queer_coding#:~:text=Queer%20coding%20is%20the%20subtextual,character%20in%20media%20as%20queer.

#cookie run #cookie run ovenbreak #cookie run kingdom #crob #crk #sea fairy cookie #moonlight cookie #seamoon #queerbaiting #queer coding

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i-write-shakespeare-not-disney · 2 years

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So I’m on a bit of a fanfiction kick.. which has not really happened in like a little over a year, I think I had to grieve lovesick ending and suchhh + dealing with some blocks that prohibited me from reading - BUT

I literally remembered ur fic “the last first” today - because I realize I’m feeling a lot of similar things Lance struggled with in that fic *coughs in sexual frustration* but anyway, I re-read it and I realized how much I missed your fucking writing bro, you literally write like no other, and god it made me so happy

And then I decided to read a few parts in lovesick - like lance coming out to vero, then luis, then marco.. then cari then julio… then parent meet up and then I went to read the poem again (if u cant tell i was going for the scenes that were gonna WRECK me) but GOD MY HEART I FORGOT HOW GOOD IT WAS TO HAVE MY HEART BATTERED IN A GOOD WAY the fuckin rush it gives me goddam - but i think I’ve reached a point where I want to re-read the whole thing and I literally cant wait

MFMCJDJCJDJJR I'm so honored that my writing elicited this reaction 😭

Like to not only make it hard to read things but to bring you back to it all over again once the block lifted 🥰🥰

You've always been one of the biggest supporters of my writing, so I'm happy you can come back to it. I've been missing the lovesick/klance era too (I was debating doing a lance version of the one where he gets engaged post vld)

Of course I hope you enjoy Lovesick as much as you did the first time around♡♡♡♡♡

#lovesick #klance

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sixsoulsinhiding · 2 years

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For the fandom discourse meme: Why do I feel like Danny X Andrew would be the fandom's Klance and if they didn't end up together you'd be accused of queerbaiting.

Because I am queerbaiting y'all! 💕 💞 ♥️ 💜 💙 🧡 hope this helps! I'M JOKING DONT BE MAD

Honestly I've been debating on whether to like, discuss the ship in canon at some point, or maybe have the two explore that tbh, but I get worried because Danny frequently crushes on people. Would you nerds like to actually see it explored some?

#weird souls; anonymous #ask meme #the man behind the keyboard; mun

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silentwillowwhisperer · 1 year

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Tattoo AU pt. 4

You may be wondering why Lance, Hunk, and Pidge are currently in the grocery store at 5 flipping AM.

Yeah, Lance would like the to know the answer to that, too.

Maybe it's because Pidge has the most crapped-up sleep schedule EVER and wakes up at demonic hours. That means that they call Hunk and Lance way too early in the morning out of boredom, and Hunk takes them all on spontaneous shopping trips so that he can feel productive. It's routine by now. The only reason that Lance doesn't object is because shopping always leads to baked treats.

Anyway, Hunk is walking through the aisles with Pidge in his cart and Lance standing on the edge of it. As they go past the freezer aisle, Lance sees a familiar face.

The man is at least 6 feet tall and has a shock of white hair in the front. At a second glance, Lance realizes that one of his arms is mechanical, and his flesh arm is covered in a long tattoo sleeve.

Lance, despite being slightly intimidated, hops of his perch on the cart and waltzes up to the guy.

"Hi! How are you?"

The poor guy looks around himself to make sure Lance isn't talking to someone else.

"I... I'm okay, I guess? Is anyone ever feeling great at 5AM?"

Dang. That's a good point. Lance sighs and shakes his head. "Do I know you from anywhere?"

Mr. Buff Guy raises an eyebrow. "You know what? You do look familiar."

They squint at each other for a moment before Cyborg Cute Guy snaps his fingers aggressively and holds out his mechanical hand. "I know! Keith showed me a picture of you from your client profile! You're Lance McClain! Hi. I'm Shiro, Keith's brother."

Lance stares at the robotic appendage for a moment, trying to figure out if it could crush his hand, before accepting it. "Oh, cool. Keith said something to Allura about introducing me and my friends to you. Hopefully you're nicer than Keith first was."

Shiro snickers. "Yep. That's Keith. I swear he's only half demon."

The way Shiro says that is with such a serious tone that Lance finds himself debating if the guy is kidding or not. Before he can ask, Shiro has changed topics.

"Hey! Do you have Keith's number? Like, his not-work number. I should give it to you!"

For some reason, Lance agrees, and now he has a brand new contact. Yay?

Shiro smiles. Keith had ranted to him about Lance just yesterday. He hadn't really been listening, but he heard the words 'cute' and 'pretty' loud and clear. And now, looking at the man in front of him, he could see why. This guy was totally Keith's type.

It's a good thing Shiro likes to play matchmaker.

------------------

This was more of a filler chapter because I needed to introduce Shiro and give Lance Keith's number. But don't worry, we will be back to klancing in the next part. Also, I somehow managed to post on schedule??? What is happening??? Consider this a miracle. But don't worry, the next part will be out soon, I'm on a roll.

Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

#klance #voltron legendary defender #vld #lance mcclain #takashi shirogane #lance vld #voltron #shiro vld #tattoo shop au #tawny post

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